POLICY DOSSIER
If we get it right, we’ll all be saying “I’m a European”
Autumn 2007
Europeans like to think of themselves as multi-cultural, yet in some countries simmering xenophobia could flame into conflict between inner-city communities, fears Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. His solution to these tensions is an ambitious EU-wide strategy for promoting both a multi-lingual Europe and multi-culturalism
“United in diversity” is not so much a motto, as a vision and a slogan for the EU and its future development. For diversity we certainly have; 27 member states, each with its own rich history, over 450m people, 23 official languages and others less widely spoken. Yet we have to recognise that we are far from a pan-European society, rather a conglomerate of many societies even if we share similar basic values, perceptions and a close cultural code.
Looking to Europe’s future, then, the first question that comes to mind is whether the EU will ever be able to construct a multi-lingual Europe that works. Human speech is highly unpredictable in its development and “behaviour”, and for every successful example of harnessing a language to political ends, like Hebrew in Israel, there is a strikingly unsuccessful one, like the failure of the Netherlands to introduce Dutch in Indonesia.
What we do know, though, is that large-scale social processes like European integration call for an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary approach. For the European Union is not only a grandiose project from an economic and political standpoint but also in social and cultural terms. We Europeans therefore need to take a long-term view of how to set about it. We probably don’t expect the structural political changes we’ve brought about so far to yield rapid social and cultural changes. The sort of institution-building that has been achieved in the EU is the result of much debate and negotiation but was relatively straightforward. We all know, though, that these institutional achievements are themselves not enough to build a united Europe. We Europeans need to change the way we perceive each other, and we need to think in terms of an ambitious and comprehensive cultural integration process. The future of Europe depends on how well we develop this new style of social integration, and on the dialogue we can establish between societies.
All of EU’s member states are in one way or another undergoing large-scale if gradual change as the Union further develops its structures and its connection with its citizens. An extremely positive aspect of this long-term development is that the citizens and their EU-level representatives will all have a chance to be involved in shaping this common future. They could never have hoped to do so as the inhabitants of individual European countries, but most definitely can as citizens of Europe. But ensuring that the EU’s more active citizens really do get involved in this ambitious process means that first they must be guaranteed totally free access to information from the European institutions. And maintaining the EU’s multilingual character will be an essential condition of this.
The uniqueness of the EU’s association of countries is reflected in its formal rules on multilingualism. The legal basis of the Union’s language policy dates back to 1958 and Regulation No. 1 of the Council of Europe. Subsequent amendments provided for the linguistic regime of the European Economic Community by enumerating official languages and specifying when they should be used. The European Community also affirmed in its primary legislation the principles governing the EU institutions’ correspondence with the citizens of member states and the use of the official language of their choice. The founding fathers made a clear choice right from the start that characterised the Community and would make it different from all other international organisations; the process of European integration, they agreed, would be based on the principle of multilingualism. Fifty years on, the 27-member EU is the only international body to have 23 official languages.
Democracy and openness are the EU’s guiding principles, and that’s precisely why the Union has to communicate with its citizens via the languages they speak and read. The public is entitled to know what is being done on its behalf, and citizens should be able to play an active role without being forced to study foreign languages. Also, the laws adopted by the European Union should be understandable for everybody, so the EU’s legally regulated multilingualism can only strengthen its transparency, legitimacy and efficiency. Having said all that, we must also admit that eventually a simplification of the EU’s cumbersome bureaucracy must be on the agenda.
What we now need is the formal adoption of the principle of multilingualism to ensure its day-to-day implementation within the EU. At one end of the scale, there are more and more programmes to encourage people to widen their linguistic horizons, even though for many people it’s hard if not impossible to master even one foreign tongue. At the other end of the scale, therefore, we’re looking for ways to improve communication and draw the EU’s countries closer together.
Multilingualism in Europe is going to be an integral part of our multicultural character. Building a common European identity will be a long process, but it will happen providing we aim at cultural integration and dialogue rather than at assimilation and unification. If we were to aim for the later, the risk is of feelings of “de-personalisation”, negative attitudes of euroscepticism and a resistance by citizens to the whole process of integration. To be united in our diversities we need to recognise the value of national traditions. If we succeed, I believe that in years to come our citizens will identify themselves by the phrase “I am a European”.
There is, though, another side to multiculturalism. Europe has always been a multicultural continent where different cultures, religions and beliefs live side by side. Nowadays the expanding borders of the EU, emigration pressures in countries outside Europe and the present wave of religious and ethnic tension means that we must urgently establish a new dialogue. We are witnessing the surge of new minorities which for one reason or another either isolate themselves or become isolated in separate enclaves within major European cities. This dangerous trend may well create future ethnic and religious conflicts. Popular protests two years ago in France, Belgium and Germany, and last year’s unrest in Muslim communities over religious cartoons in Denmark, are all signs of a storm that is brewing. Modern Europeans believe in personal freedom and such other freedoms as that of speech, and in tolerance of differences, and that is what the philosophy of multi-culturalism should be all about. We Europeans must address these challenges, or we will face a painful clash of cultures.
But unfortunately in some European countries, nationalism and xenophobia are simmering, and may yet take the form of open hostility between different ethnic and religious groups, partly as a response to tensions in the Islamic world and within Europe’s own Islamic communities. This could create a vicious circle in which tensions between these separate cultures flames into confrontation and aggression. Our mission as citizens of Europe is to instead point these communities along the road to a united, multicultural and multilingual society.